Oil Wars

Ongoing analysis of events in Venezuela and Iraq

Monday, May 10, 2004

Pro-Chavez politician assasinated

Last Thursday night a mayoral candidate of the MVR (Chavez’s political party) was shot dead as he was driving home from a conference. Giandomenico Puliti was a candidate for mayor in the small municipality of Tovar which is in the state of Merida. It was a organized hit in that several individuals on motorcycles pulled along side his car and shot him dead while he was driving.

At this point it is unclear who is responsible for the murder and what their motives were. It is quite possible that although he was a pro-Chavez politician politics played no role in the murder. And so far, no-one has implied that politics is behind the murder.

However, it bears mentioning that if it had been an opposition politician shot dead the Venezuelan media would be full of accusations that Chavez was behind the murder and that this was more evidence of Venezuela being “totalitarian” state. Unlike those who support Chavez, the opposition doesn’t need to await actual evidence to start making scurrilous accusations.

As it is, the opposition media has essentially ignored Mr. Pulitti’s death.